DP World India golf: Rory the cynosure as elite event tees off
The $4million event on the DGC course will see the strongest field assembled for a tournament in India
New Delhi: It’s hard to look past Rory McIlroy. He stares at you from the decked up sidewalks at the Delhi Golf Club (DGC), smiles back from the life-size posters, and pumps a fist just as you enter the 18th hole. A superstar golfer holding the patrons of an exclusive club in his thrall. Check. A sporting hero that elicits as much intrigue as excitement. Check. An international hero crooning about the beauty and challenges of a pristine course. Check.
And yet, there’s something different about Rory. The affability that comes with the assurance of one’s place among the game’s finest, an articulation that conveys clarity, the quiet sense of responsibility of taking the game to fresher geographies. And then of course, the eagerness to experience something uniquely Indian – from Test cricket to the Taj Mahal.
The inaugural $4million DP World Indian Championship, however, is a little more than just one player. Getting McIlroy with Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Shane Lowry, Brian Harman and Luke Donald in one event is what dreams are made of, especially for Indian fans.
For a fast-emerging golf market such as India, an event of this stature is a big step up. And it is only apt that the tournament will be played at DGC where 500-year ruins, startled blue bucks and nonchalant peacocks watch the action, adding to the serenity and mystique of the place.
Indian golfers will look to feed off the energy and make the opportunity count. The last time an Indian man won on the European tour was back in August 2018, Gaganjeet Bhullar at the Fiji International. The last time an Indian won at the DGC was also in 2018, Khalin Joshi in the Panasonic Open. The last time an Indian playing here this week won on the European Tour was in February 2018 – Shubhankar Sharma in the Maybank Championship, Kuala Lumpur.
Bhullar and Joshi are not among the 26 Indians who will tee off on Thursday and Shubhankar is in the midst of a horror season, having missed 21 cuts in 27 outings. Veer Ahlawat, the only other Indian with a full European tour card, too has struggled to make a mark.
The course will be anything but easy. The narrow fairways and undulating greens demand accuracy, and not many Europeans are expected to pull out their drivers.
“The next time I hit my driver will be in the Abu Dhabi Championships... I don’t think I’ll hit a driver this week. I just don’t feel like the risk is worth the reward. I’d rather leave myself two or three clubs back and hit a 7-iron into a par 4 instead of hitting a wedge where if you just get it off-line here and the ball is gone. You’re hitting it into the jungle and you’re not going to be able to get it out. You can rack up a very big number very quickly,” McIlroy said.
“Being strategic and being smart with your play off the tee is very important. I can see why SSP Chawrasia has done so well around here. You just keep hitting it down the middle every single time, and if you do that then you can do very well at this course.”
Fleetwood stressed on the importance of being smart. Aggressive or conservative, the ball ought to remain in play, he noted.
“I can’t imagine many people doing it, but you can be as aggressive as you want in terms of the clubs you’re hitting off the tee. Overall, you have to put the ball in play. Hitting off the fairway makes a huge difference and you have to control your iron play. You have to be patient, and you have to be strategic,” the 34-year-old added.
Americans Brian Harman and Ben Griffin, enjoying a life-changing career rise, spoke about the challenges posed by the narrow fairways.
“It’s certainly a different challenge than what we’re accustomed to, but not totally dissimilar from playing links golf from time to time. I take a lot of correlation from here to there and I will just try to plot my way around that way,” Harman, the 2023 Open Championship winner with multiple PGA Tour titles, said.
Griffin, who won his first two PGA Tour titles this season, stressed the importance of club selection. Noting that DGC is not as long as a typical PGA course, Griffin argued for the need to hit more mid-irons and long irons “because guys are going to be hitting drivers and having short irons in.”
“Now we’re hitting 1-irons but we’ll still have mid-irons into the green. It’s a unique challenge,” he said.
